Portraits of sportsplayers

[Eliane©]

I'm completely new to this forum (and photography ), but I've been receiving the newsletter and thought this is the right place to ask this question.

I like to go to tennis tournaments and take pictures of the players there. Now that I'm trying to improve, I can find tons of tips on the 'action shots', but not for the portraits I like to take after a match/ training session.

This is what I mean with those portraits: DSC06913 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I've been thinking of ways to make these more interesting, but I can't think of anything. Of course there's maybe a little more time after training instead of a match, but most of the time I'm not the only one asking and I need to be quick to take the photo, before they walk away.

I use a Sony H9 camera.

If anyone has an idea for me to try, I would love to hear it.

[CatcherT]

oh cute guy LOL, that makes any pic you take of him nice huh? I can't give advice on what your asking I just wanted to say how cute he was LOL

[Eliane©]

LOL, I think he hears that all the time. But on court he usually isn't so cute, haha.
I sort of got to know him, that's why he's all smiles in my portraits of him.

But as I said, they all look the same, so hopefully someone has ideas to post.
For ideas that might take a little longer time than a few seconds (probably with all the potential ideas), I guess I could try and ask the player above, because he tends to take a little more time when I take a pic.

[ehill8794]

Wow your photos are very good.
It's great that your starting to develop a relationship with the player. Maybe you could offer him the chance for a free fun on court portait secession so you have more time to do what you want.

For quick photos as they are leaving, maybe a thumbs up, or him flexing his arm or something fun/ funny like that. Or even a photo of them signing an autograph.
Hopefully that gives you a few ideas to maybe make up or go off of.
Good luck and keep posting you tennis photos.

I am a tennis player my self and love to watch tennis too. I hope to start photographing it soon too. If I get any good photos etc. i'll be sure to post them up.

[Eliane©]

Thanks!

Those are good ideas, especially to get them to do something funny. Now that you said that, I remember a friend taking a hilarious pic, when she asked a player walking around with an icecream.
Sometimes it weird that you need someone else to tell you these ideas... I could've thought of it myself, but the more I think about such things, the less comes up in my mind, haha.

And a session with Clément, that would be great! But I think I don't dare to ask